By: Dorothy Kleinman

Dorothy Kleinman — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 15:30:57 +0000

In an effort to get my students to use the vocabulary and grammar that they already know, especially since I only assign items that would rely on their prior and present knowledge, when possible, I always do writing activities during class time. That way, I can see where they are going right, meaning that they are simply looking up nouns, infinitives, adjectives and other specific parts of speech, and where they are going wrong, they plug in whole sentences or even paragraphs. When they ask for too many consecutive words, the translating devices do not understand their misspellings or grammatical misuses in English, and they end up with all kinds of convoluted nonsense.

I have stopped to give them a grand lesson on how to use an online translating device in a reasonable way. I show them what they may look up, and how to know if they got the correct word or phrase by cross referencing back to English. That is always an eye-opener for the students.

Finally, when I assign a writing activity created to make the students use the past and current topic vocabulary and grammar, should they come up with all kinds of new phrasing, I ask them if they would like to have all that additional verbiage added to the unit items for an upcoming assessment. It is like magic to have them get that light bulb over their heads and then revert to using the stuff in the original assignment with no further prompting. The point in any L2 acquisition activity is that they practice and get correct everything that they already know while adding new vocabulary and grammar at an appropriate pace to their abilities at their level. Online translators drown learners in native level words and locutions which is like pouring an ocean on top of a sponge and expecting it all to be absorbed.

That is my two cents, for what it is worth.

Comments on: Online Translators as a Pedagogical Tool

By: Dorothy Kleinman